GAYOT's Blog

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by Jeff Hoyt

Do you know what “carbon footprint” means? When it comes to food and beverage items, any idea what “fair trade” is? What do producers mean when they label their products “sustainable?” Even though many consumers don’t know what these phrases mean, the demand for sustainable food and beverage items continues to increase, according to a recent study.

In an online survey of 2,000 adults conducted by the Chicago-based Mintel, a whopping 84% of respondents said they regularly buy green or sustainable food and drink. However, many of them were unaware of what makes a product sustainable.

Continue reading “Carbon Footprint? 8-1/2, EEE” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

While you’re still working your way through Thanksgiving leftovers, we’re hard at work making the next set of holidays easier for you. Shopping? Check out our Top 10 Holiday Gifts, including a new book for foodies: Avec Eric: A Culinary Journey with Eric Ripert. Need a break from shopping? Unwind with one of our Top 10 Holiday Movies: some will steal your heart, while others depict stealing groundhogs. Going to a holiday party? Pick up one of our Top 10 Holiday Wines, which covers white, red, dessert, and sparkling. But for the best in sparkling wines, consult our Top 10 Prestige Cuvées, our selections of the top Champagnes available.

All of these lists and more can be found in our latest The Food Paper newsletter, published today. It’s easy to subscribe to our free newsletters, including our recently published Hotel Issue and our Annual Restaurant Issue coming out in January. Keep coming back to GAYOT.com for reviews of the newest restaurants and hotels.

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by Meryl Pearlstein

Do you know how long it takes to safely defrost a twenty-pound turkey? Don’t try to stuff it in your microwave. Instead, make a reservation at one of our top Thanksgiving restaurants near you. And don’t forget to pick up one of our recommended Thanksgiving wines.
For our friends in New York, we offer a top 10 Thanksgiving restaurant list and more of the best places to chow down tomorrow. Here are even more details of some of our picks. Enjoy your holiday. We hope you have lots to be thankful for.

Wall & Water: At the new Andaz Wall Street hotel, Chef Maximo Lopez May prepares a farm-to-table Thanksgiving culinary adventure between 1pm and 7pm. The menu will be offered for $65 per person or $32 for children 5-12. Start with “The Larder” (raw bar) with handpicked Fishers Island oysters, smoked salmon and trout, poached shrimp, red and white anchovy salad, and Hudson Valley cheese and charcuteries. Next, move to “The Family Table” where you will create your own salad before heading to “The Kitchen,” where you will be presented with oven roasted turkey, grilled swordfish, braised veal leg, vegetable soup, roasted root vegetables, creamy parmesan grits, mashed new potatoes, and steamed green vegetables. Finish your meal at “The Chef’s Table” with home style apple pie, berry crumble, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, or make your own sundae.

Continue reading “Last-Minute Turkey” »

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by Meryl Pearlstein

 

Did that last-minute Thanksgiving invitation you were expecting not come through? Does the thought of making your own turkey and all of the trimmings scare you?

 

Fear not. There is still plenty of time to make a reservation at a restaurant that will take care of your Thanksgiving needs. For New York, as well as other major metropolitan areas, we even offer a Top 10 Thanksgiving restaurant list. Here are more details of what some of these top NYC Thanksgiving restaurants have to offer, and you won’t even have to clean up afterwards!

Continue reading “Talking Turkey” »

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by Jennifer Olvera

It wouldn’t really be Thanksgiving without the bird. However, there’s no need to settle for a staid approach — or do any of the heavy lifting yourself. This year, some Chicago restaurants are dishing up unique feasts, ones that require no fuss on your part but offer plenty of full-flavor surprises.

Big Jones, for example, will serve a festive, southern-style feast, complete with pimento cheese, okra and pickled green tomato starter; cornbread muffins and Sally Lunn bread with house-churned butter alongside house Concord grape and hot pepper jellies; a choice of appetizers, including butternut squash gnocchi with fried sage, roasted pears and mushroom jus; Vidalia onion and goat cheese pie with herb purée; a Waldorf salad with Redcort apples; and deep-fried Gunthorp Farms turkey with onion-thyme dressing. Needless to say, you can expect other comfort-driven, updated sides ($46 adults, $20 children under 12).

Continue reading “Bird is the Word: Thanksgiving, Chicago-Style” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

 
The weather gods smiled on the 24th Annual Great Chefs of Los Angeles “Go Green, Go Organic” event, where threatening skies turned into warm afternoon sunshine. The event featuring food, wine, beer and fun benefitted the National Kidney Foundation. Since its inception in 1987, it has raised more than $4.5 million.

Featured Great Chefs included Adam Horton from Saddle Peak Lodge, named one of our Rising Chefs, who prepared braised wild boar with leek soubise; Matt Carpenter of Momed, who wowed the crowd with his duck shwarma; and Onil Chibás & Alberto Morales of Elements Kitchen who cleverly crossed cultures with their satisfying marinated flank steak kimchi tacos. The most memorable food product of the day: Sushi Poppers!
Continue reading “Green & Great Chefs” »

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by: Sophie Gayot

 

There are many ways to buy products from Harry & David, the 75-year-old gourmet gift company. They have a website, a 24/7 call center (1-877-322-1200), catalogues and 126 retail stores throughout the country, making it one of the largest in the US. But this is a big country, so to make our lives even easier, they have decided to open 16 pop-up stores for the holidays to get closer to you.

  Continue reading “Harry & David & You” »

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by André Gayot

In my European journey, despite the seasonal French pseudo-revolutionary sitcom, I was able to visit the SIAL in Villepinte near Paris. I guess the acronym is used instead of the full name — Salon des Industries Alimentaires or Food Industry Exhibition — because it’s shorter for the media and maybe also because we don’t like to be reminded that the content of our plates is nowadays largely concocted in industrial factories by Big Business. But there are also artisans who strive to find improbable ways to find a magic formula, such as the one who creates his “caviar” from truffle juice. Caviar is expensive, but so are truffles. I am missing his point.

Continue reading “Food Flair at the Food Fair” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

Americans are dining out more, but spending less per meal. That’s the conclusion of payment processor First Data. Comparing September 2010, to a year earlier, food service establishments posted a 12.7-percent jump in transactions, the highest increase in 18 months. However, they also suffered a 4.5 percent decrease in the average check for the month, meaning customers were ordering less and taking advantage of promotions. Perhaps diners are sharing appetizers and desserts, or forgoing the steak for the hamburger.

To make your dining dollars go further, check out our Top 40 Cheap Eats in the U.S. and Best Value Restaurants near you. In our GAYOT Economic Stimulus Plan, we list the Top 10 Value Hotels Worldwide which can help you save on your vacation, and even the Top 10 Value Automobiles to help you get there. And if dollars are so tight that you’re stuck at home, why not try one of our Top 10 Wines Under $10? Cheers to better times ahead.

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by Jeff Hoyt 

It can be tough when your neighbors are lawyers. Just ask the owner of Rogue States, a Washington, DC, hamburger restaurant that was sued by the high-powered law firm located nearby. Yesterday, a judge ordered the restaurant to stop grilling hamburgers because of the “intense and noxious odor.”  

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